NCIS - SEASON 8 EPISODE 1

What another brilliant start to what has the inkling of being another awesome season of NCIS! After what some might say the best season so far the premier of season eight certainly did not disappoint!

I must say I enjoyed the comic element of Mike in this episode, even though he did not shoot anyone. Did anyone else see the start of Gibbs's beer belly as he was running to his car after finding the doll on Abby's car?

Ziva is still looking hot - and her retort about her not having tan-lines really got the blood boiling in the right direction! Anyone who still believes Kate ousted Ziva in the hotness, coolness or any other factor, must really have their heads read!

Abby seemed to have lost her sparkle - she was always the life of the show, her energy made you jump up and down with her. I think she needs a few Caf-pows before the next episode! McGee is as always his normal self - but i do have to comment on his weightloss, I think he should just gain five pounds because he has really lost quite a lot - but speaking as a slightly overweight guy - Well done!!

But intriguingly enough they left us with just enough to shout out loud - WTF!!! Who did Eli David find and who was Leon Vance looking for? I have racked my brains and I cannot figure out who it might be - unless it has something to do with the document Vance shredded on his first day as Director or the document the Secretary of the Navy took out of the folder that Gibbs had on Vance.

Who knows - but I sure as hell cannot wait for the next gripping episode!!

INFLUENCE OF TELEVISION ON TODAYS YOUNG MINDS

We spend so many hours in front of the television set – we each have our favourites we enjoy to watch every day and most of us make a point of it not to miss that specific show. Every day we spend more and more time in front of the television whether it is to watch a show on a network, a DVD we have purchased or hired and now it has even moved on to the computer, with a lot of people who have the time and the access downloading their favourites on to the computer and the continually viewing the shows.

I don’t have a problem with a lot of the shows, as I don’t watch all of the shows, but I do try to watch a range and increase my knowledge base. There are some shows that not even I find inappropriate to show early in the evenings or late afternoon. Just as an example – here in South Africa we have the new versions of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place showing on one of our pay channels at 19h30 Zulu time. These are the kind of shows I find demoralizing and definitely not good for the influential minds of our youths, as it is a constant barrage of sex, drugs, alcohol, cheating and other lude acts that our children view and then try to emulate because on the show it is considered cool if you do drugs of cheat on a test. And then we have the gall to say why are the youths of today so unruly and insufferable! Where are the parents?

I ask this question with my mind on these frivolous law suits being filed, one after the other where children hurt themselves or others after viewing a show, not understanding the content and then trying to emulate their on screen hero’s. One brilliant example of this is WWE – the wrestling shows that are on the air, their target viewers are teenagers and younger who don’t have the intellect to comprehend that what they are seeing on television is purely entertainment and not real. The children don’t understand that the wrestlers on screen, do get hurt but that it has all been choreographed before hand and that untrained persons should not emulate what they see. That is why I ask, where are the parents? Don’t the parents screen what their children watch anymore? Where is the mother or father, joining their child when their favourite show comes on and then explaining to the child, you cannot do that to your brother because you will get hurt – the guys on screen are entertainers and must not be copied as it is dangerous. No – it much easier and more convenient to let the child get hurt and try and sue the creator of wrestling for millions than what it is to sit down with them for five minutes and explain the concept to them.

Then on the other side the argument can be made that there are shows that help shape us in the good way, so what about them? I agree one hundred percent – but where are these shows now? What happened to Touched By an Angel – the weekly dose of religion wrapped in a beautiful message. Joan of Arcadia comes to mind as well – the problem with these shows the youth don’t like watching them because there is no action, intrigue or sex involved. But I believe this is a problem that stems from the shows the children watch from a young age. A wonderful show that I can remember from my youth was Digimon : Digital Monsters – and this show centres around young children being chosen to save the world along with their friends the Digimon from evil monsters. Now contrary to what the name might suggest the content of the show is extremely youth friendly. Each of the children represent a crest or beacon that the world needs and each of these are taught to the children who watch the show. Like courage, love, sincerity, reliability, friendship, knowledge, light and hope and each of these has become a virtue in my own life and hopefully in many others lives as well.

Television also plays a major role in the decisions that affect the course of our lives – with such a show as CSI, after the show debuted the number of applicants for crime scene investigators more than tripled and this is only by the visual effect this show had on its viewers. How many of us want to be cops because of the cop shows we see, the good guy putting the bad guy in jail is very appealing but never as it is on screen. We want our love lives to be as those we see in the movies and when they don’t turn out that way we go into a deep depression, go onto medication and ruin our lives. Anyone who says televisions influence on our lives is minimal is a moron!

Our lives are on the fast track – we live, eat and breathe in front of the television. Movie stars influence our daily lives more than politicians do. There is no more “family time” – it’s basically “my show is on so be quit!”! Parents are too busy or too tired to monitor their children anymore and it is a lot easier to leave them with the television as a babysitter than it is for themselves to spend time with their children.

We as a nation need to spend more time outdoors – walk your dog, jog around the block or for goodness sake visit your neighbour. We are so encompassed with the television our lives are passing us by. How many hours do we not spend in front of the television where we could be spending the time on our families and friends – reconnecting! I think it is time to abolish the television and bring back good old fashioned family quality time.

ALEXANDER LAVELLE HARRIS

ALEXANDER LAVELLE HARRIS

He is the accidental hero who inadvertently comes up with a great idea or who surprisingly stakes a vampire. He is portrayed by Nicolas Brendan in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Profile:
Known as Xander
Dark Brown hair
Brown eyes
Six foot (6ft)
Born 1981 in Sunnydale California
Parents are Anthony and Jessica Harris

Powers:
He has no supernatural powers or abilities
He is an average Joe who has clocked more fieldwork than every watcher combined
Persuasion and empathy
Regards insight and understanding as his superpower
Has military knowledge from Season 2 episode “Halloween”







Xander is the truest of true life characters in this show; he represents the underachiever and the no-one from high school. Throughout the years he has gone from the goof to the mature reliable person Buffy can count on to save her life and those around her.

Season one – The first glimpse we get of Xander is as he is riding up to school on his skateboard and getting knocked to his ass by a rail as he sees Buffy walking by, small side note – thank goodness the skateboarder angle was dropped for Xander. He is the first person to find out about Buffy’s secret identity and is the co-founder of the Scooby’s. During the first season we learn that Willow has a crush on him – but he only sees her as a friend. During the course of this season he is seen as the jealous stalker kind – of as he has this massive crush on Buffy but she only has eyes for Angel. His main role is to save Buffy in the finale as he has to perform CPR to revive her.




Season two – Xander is still the class clown, with jocks bullying him and girls avoiding him. His main rivalry with Angel boils over as they constantly have words and seriously don’t like each other. Xander starts dating Cordelia as the year progresses, due to all the life and death situations they were thrown in together. In the episode Halloween he is turned into an army man and after the spell ended the military knowledge stayed with him and has served him well. He was the key figure in the demise of the Judge as he had the knowledge to acquire and use a rocket launcher. He was there with the final battle against Angelus helping Giles out of the mansion.

Season three – This was the climax of his relationship with Cordelia, as they broke up after Cordelia and Oz witnessed him and Willow making out while trapped in Spike’s basement. He went single for a while until Cordelia wished to Anyanka the Vengeance demon – and her wish was stopped and Anyanka was turned mortal and known as Anya. She asked Xander to the prom – the beginning of big things for them. In the episode “The Zeppo” Xander has to single handedly stop a bunch of zombies from blowing up the high school and during the course of that evening he loses his virginity to Faith in her motel room. During the final battle with the Major at Graduation day Xander was pivotal using his military knowledge in co-ordinating the students in flanks and attacking and beating back the wave of vampires.



Season four – This is Xander’s year of downward spiralling – he decides not to go to college and instead goes on a cross – country road trip which doesn’t go very far as his car breaks down. When he comes back to Sunnydale he has to move into his parents’ basement and pay them rent. He gets quite a few lame jobs. Anya return to his life and at first their relationship is purely sexual but as it progresses he falls in love with the crazy ex-demon. During the enjoining spell – Xander was the heart part of the “Super – Buffy”.


Season five – Here Xander starts maturing a bit, securing a managerial construction job and his own apartment with Anya moving in with him. This season is infamous because of the Dracula episode – where Xander is turned into Dracula’s manservant – brilliantly done! He has to contend with Willow and Anya’s bickering over him and Anya’s ex boyfriend Olaf the Troll who breaks his arm. Just before they go into the final battle with glory the hell god and her minions, does he ask Anya to marry to – to which she replies that she will say yes if they both survive the battle.

Season six – Sees another powerful spell with Xander as a key element – as he, Willow, Anya and Tara bring Buffy back from the dead. Xander and Anya are engaged and it’s the build up to their wedding with tensions building. On the day of the wedding Xander gets a visit from a demon pretending to be his future self in order to get Xander to leave her, which he does as he realises his fears and shortcomings. The rest of the year he has to work on getting over Anya and rebuilding his life without her. He is the pivotal character in this season, when Willow goes over the deep end after the murder of Tara; he was the one to use the yellow crayon story from kinder garden to reach her heart by using his words and determination, effectively stopping the end of the world.

Season seven – during the course of this season, he and Anya have a few sexual encounters in times of crisis but ultimately end things for the good of both. He was the lead constructor while building and renovating the new Sunnydale high school. During the battle at the wine cellar against Caleb the evil priest, Caleb destroyed one of his eyes saying he was the one that is all seeing and that he would put an end to it. During the final battle he was with Dawn fighting and killing a few Tulacan vampires – manning one of the crucial exit points in the high school. After the destruction of Sunnydale he was mentioned being in Africa – finding and recruiting new Slayers to the cause.




Relationships:
These are the main relationships for the Xan – man:
Cordelia Chase – season 2/3 she main Xander’s first real girlfriend
Willow Rosenberg – season 3 a brief make out session after years of her wanting him
Faith Lehane – season 3 she took Xander’s virginity
Anya Jenkins – season 4/7 his main love interest who he almost married


Some other less significant relationships:
Buffy Summers – recurring throughout the seven season as only an infatuation
Ampata – season 2 an ancient mummy who tried to steal his life force
Nancy – season 7 they had a brief date
Lissa – season 7 went on a date but she was a demon wanting to kill him










Xander is the man, goofy and wise. He is true embodiment of all that we are and want to be. The whole struggle to gain yourself.

WILLOW DANIELLE ROSENBERG

WILLOW DANIELLE ROSENBERG

The wily red head vixen that stole our hearts as the super hot witch in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is portrayed by Alyson Hannigan.

Biography:
Red haired
Green emerald eyes
Height – five feet six inches (5ft 6in)
Born in 1982 in Sunnydale California
Parents are Sheila and Ira Rosenberg
She goes dark and turns her hair and eyes pitch black

Powers:
Telekinesis
Flight
Telepathy
Energy bolts from her hands
Can cast a variety of magical spells

She has come a long way from the shy, nerdy girl we met to the most powerful Wiccan in this plain of existence. The wily ways and sometimes risky humour entertained us and not to mention the jaw dropping kisses and sex scenes of a lesbian nature that we witnessed

Season one – We meet Willow and she is portrayed as a nerdy girl that does not risk much. She herself says she has had a crush on Xander since they were five, but because of her nature she was too afraid to do something about those feelings. Here Buffy becomes her best friend alongside Xander and helps her gain some confidence in who she is. During the course of the first season her main role is to aid Giles in his research via the internet and hacking into databases.



Season two – In this season Willow starts to explore the magicks. After Angelus murders Miss Calendar – the computer sciences teacher, Willow is given her class to teach. She also gets a bit of a more aggressive make over as she leads the Scooby’s in Buffy’s absence. Due to her long standing crush on Xander and his betrayal of her trust by getting into a relationship with Cordelia, Willow decides to risk it all and starts a relationship with Oz the lead guitarist of Dingoes Ate My Baby and who it turns out is a werewolf. At the end of the season she has become such an expert witch she is able to re – ensoul Angelus and revert him back to Angel before Buffy sent him to hell.

Season three – Here Willow explores even further with the magicks and we are introduced to her doppelganger – vampire Willow from another dimension, who as Willow describes – might even be a little gay, giving us reference to her future lesbian relationships. Willow joins a coven with Amy Madison and Michael Czajak which didn’t last long. Willow and Xander are taken hostage by Spike and share a kiss but didn’t know Oz and Cordelia were in the doorway watching them and having come to their rescue. Cordelia and Xander’s relationship didn’t make it but Willow and Oz were able to patch things up. Oz was also the person to take her virginity just before the assault on the Major at Graduation Day. She was approached by Yale, Harvard and Oxford but chose UC Sunnydale because she could be with Buffy and help with the good fight.

Season four – After some trials and tribulations Willow and Buffy become roommates but even while living together they drifted away from each other and only fully reconnected at the end of the season. This season was full of self discovery for Willow – she and Oz broke it off after his carnal relations in werewolf form with another werewolf, resulting in Oz leaving Sunnydale on a journey of self discovery and trying to tame the beast inside. Trying to further her magicks she joins a coven on campus, which resulted in the meeting of Tara McClay, her soul mate. She and Tara met and took things slow with Willow eventually coming out of the closest at the end of the season. She conjured a very powerful spell at the end of the season combining her essence with those of Buffy, Xander and Giles and going forth in destroying Adam in the Initiative.

Season five – This season sees Willow’s magic power increase dramatically and her relationship with Tara strengthens. Willow doesn’t have as much to do in this season and it’s only after Glory mistakes Tara for her key and brain sucks Tara does Willow really feature. Fuelled by her desire for revenge Willow goes on a rampage and fights Glory woman on god and we get a glimpse of dark Willow that rears again in season six. Even though in their first encounter Willow doesn’t do that much damage she gets a feel for the god and knows what to do the next time they meet. At the end of the season Willow reverses the brain suck on Glory restoring Tara to her rightful mind and significantly weakening the god and giving Buffy the chance of defeating her.

Season six – Here Willow spirals out of control, after an argument with Tara about Willow using too much magic, Tara leaves Willow and tells her she much quit the magicks and she’ll come back. At the start of the season we get another glimpse of Willow’s power when she restores Buffy back to life and her powers only grow as the season progresses. After Tara left, Willow de-ratted Amy and went on a magic spree with her while being introduced to Raiffe the warlock who enhances Willows powers but infects her with an addiction for it. Only after landing Dawn in the hospital and facing the loss of Tara does Willow decide to face her problems of abuse and quits magic. In one of the most heart wrenching scenes, Warren Mears shoots and kills Tara (which made me cry) and ultimately resulting in the awakening of dark, veiny Willow who goes on a rampage resulting in her filleting Warren alive and hunting the other two of the Trio. With the retuning Giles, he imbues her with the true essence of magic and using Xander are they able to talk Willow off of the proverbial cliff and calm her down.

Season seven – Starting off Willow was taken by Giles to England to learn the meaning of magic and help her deal and control her powers. When returning to Sunnydale she had to make amends with her friends who she tried to kill. After the tragic demise of Tara, Willow found a new love in the form of a potential Slayer named Kennedy. When the first evil rears its head, it’s Willow that has the power to turn the tables on it. During the build-up to the final battle with the first, Willow gets a call from Fred in Los Angeles, asking her for help. Willow goes to Los Angeles and battles with Jasmine a former Power That Be that has come to earth, and re – ensouls Angelus for a second time and also retrieves Faith and brings her to Sunnydale to help against The First. Willow was used in the final battle not as a fighter but as the person that would change the Slayer line forever, she used the Slayer Scythe to tap into the Slayer powers and turn all the potential Slayers into real Slayers thus making her a goddess on earth.


Relationships:
Major relationships for Willow are:
Daniel “Oz” Ozbourne – the werewolf and her first boyfriend
Tara McClay – the witch and her ultimate soul mate
Kennedy – the slayer and latest lover


Some other relationships that just didn’t last:
Xander Harris – fellow Scooby and long time crush but never reciprocated
Malcolm Black – the demon Moloch in human form
Rupert Giles – she only had a crush on him but never acted on it
RJ brooks – he used his mystical jacket to get laid

She is a wonderful person and a great friend.

BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Movie the main character Buffy Summers was portrayed by Kristy Swanson in the crappy movie version that gave life to the television series, where Sarah Michelle Gellar took over the role of Buffy Summers.

Biography:
Blonde hair
Green emerald eyes
Five foot twenty five inches (5ft. 25in)
Born 19 January 1981
Parents are Hank and Joyce Summers

Powers:
Heightened speed and agility
Superhuman strength
Accelerated healing powers
Prophetic dreams
Close group of friends – that no other Slayer had – gave her strength of character.






The story starts of in Los Angeles where Buffy learns from Merrick Jamison – Smythe her first Watcher that she is the Chosen One – the one girl in all the world with the strength and powers to be able to beat back the rising evils. When Merrick gets killed by Lothos she kills Lothos and burns down the school gymnasium in order to kill the rest of his vampire cronies, which results in her being expelled from Hemery high. It is later learned that after this incident she told her parents about herself and vampires and they had her admitted to a mental hospital for treatment. She decided to stop talking about vampires and was released six weeks later.

Not long after her release, her parents got a divorce prompting Joyce to take her daughter and travel to Sunnydale to start a new life. And this is where the proper story starts. Buffy gets introduced on her first day at Sunnydale high to a wide variety of characters, Xander and Willow her newest best friends, Giles the librarian and her new watcher and Cordelia the vapid cheerleader the embodiment of all that Buffy was. Together with her friends known as the Scooby’s they go after various demons and vampires, protecting the populous of Sunnydale and especially the school that is situated over a Hellmouth.



Season one – Buffy and her friends fight off The Master, The Order of Aurelius and various other vampires as the season progresses. In so doing her friends learn all about the legend of the Slayer and all of Buffy’s abilities helping protect her cover as she protects others. Angel also makes his first appearance as a mysterious stranger throwing out clues helping Buffy find and defeat the demons. All throughout she starts falling for him even though he turns out to be a vampire as well. The climax of the season is where Buffy goes to fight the master in his underground prison – but she draws the short end of the straw and gets bit by him and being thrown face down in a pool of water, effectively dying. Luckily it was only a clinical death and with the help of Xander who performs CPR and resuscitates her bringing her back to life. She goes after The Master and efficiently kills him.


Season two – The Buffy - Angel relationship goes to the next level and Giles also falls in love with Miss Calendar. Angel takes Buffy’s virginity and reverts back to his evil form, angelus and terrorises the Sunnydale inhabitants, aiming his attacks at Buffy hoping to emotionally hurt her. He is the one who killed Miss Calendar when he found out she belonged to the Gypsy clan that cursed him with a soul so many years ago. Together with Spike and Drusilla they try to take over the town and effectively end the world using the demon Acathla. Luckily for Buffy, Spike (who does not want the world to end and spoil all his fun) switches sides and helps her to stop Angel and Drusilla, and as Buffy runs Angel through with a sword sending him into the demon dimension he had opened, Willow, Buffy’s witch friend re- ensouls him using an ancient gypsy curse. A heartbroken Buffy runs away trying to cope with murdering her true love



Season three – Buffy finds her true self (and deals with the loss of Angel) after several weeks in Los Angeles and returns to Sunnydale and has to patch up her relationships with all her friends and family. Faith the “evil” slayer is introduced in this season, first fighting on the side of good and helping Buffy find her riskier side but after she murders the deputy major turns bad and joins forces with the big bad of the season Major Wilkens, who plans on devouring the graduating class and turning into a true, pure demon. Buffy strategically plans and enlightens everyone and together she and her fellow classmates take down the Major and blow up the high school in the process. At the end of the season the retuning Angel leaves Sunnydale at the behest of Buffy’s mother to help her have some semblance of a normal life – or as normal as it can get.


Season four – Buffy heads off to college and has too deal with a heavy class load and a few new romances as well as the United States Government imposing themselves on her territory and basically taking her glory. Her new loves comes in the form of farm bred Iowa boy Riley Finn who steals her heart and helps her take down the Initiative he was working for. She and all her friends basically drift off in different directions as all friend clichés do when going to college but in the end they reunite stronger than ever. In the season climax Buffy and the Scooby’s have to take down the cybernetically engineered Adam who was built from the parts of other demons, man and machine in the basement of the Initiative. So they all combine their essences with Buffy to form a “Super – Buffy” (heart, mind, soul and body) strong enough to defeat Adam and shut down the Initiative.


Season five – This was for me one of the saddest seasons of all – as Joyce the stable of the Summers house is killed by a brain aneurism after a long battle with a tumour on her brain. For Buffy she and Riley broke up when Spike revealed to her Riley was having his blood drained by vampire chicks because as he put it “just to feel”. On top off dealing with a new sister who a couple of monks gave to her to protect (she is actually a mystical key used to open the door to another dimension) she has to run the household and pay the bills since the passing of her mother and then to crown it all she has to do battle with the Hell god Glorificus who wants to kill Dawn and destroy all mankind. At the end of the season she did battle with Glory beating her to a pulp but was unable to stop one of glory’s minions from cutting Dawn and beginning the ritual bloodletting that opens the gates to the other dimensions. Buffy realised as per her vision quest that “death is her gift” and sacrificed herself by jumping into the portal to close it and in so doing she left this mortal coil to rest in heaven.



Season six – This has to be considered as Buffy’s darkest year. After her death in the previous season Willow, Anya, Xander and Tara vowed to bring her back to life believing she was trapped in a hell dimension being tortured. They ripped her from heaven and thrust her back to life leaving her to deal with being back on earth and facing the normal quarrels of life like raising Dawn and paying the bills. She gets a job at the Double Meat Palace slinging burgers and starts a love to hate sex relationship with Spike so she could escape into something else for a short while – when she breaks it off with Spike she does so because the hate is killing her and to deal with the break-up Spike tries to rape her. She fights him off and with his tail between his legs he leaves Sunnydale to get his manhood or vampire – ism back. The Trio, the evil in this season was defeated by Buffy at the end and to get revenge Warren shot Buffy and killed Tara turning Willow into dark evil veiny Willow. As Willow went after the trio (who were in prison) Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Anya had to try and stop her from killing them and losing herself but it was only through the return of Giles and his sacrifice and Xander’s close connection with Willow where they able to stop her. This is the first season where Buffy was not present at the final battle stopping the evil.

Season seven – Starts off with Buffy taking a more hands on approach to training Dawn and has to deal with the newly en-souled Spike back in her life. She gets a job as a guidance counsellor at the newly renovated Sunnydale high school where Dawn in also attending. She has to face the most powerful and ultimate evil in all the world known as the First. The first is the ultimate evil that is killing the Slayer line and all the potential Slayers in it before going after Buffy and Faith. This season sees the return of Giles with Buffy’s home becoming refuse and training centre to all the surviving potentials. Buffy gets a new friend in the form of previous Slayer Nikki Wood’s son – Robin Wood joining in on the fight. Faith also makes a return and takes the reigns once the potentials and the Scooby’s rebel against Buffy. With only Spike staying true to our heroine – he urges her to follow her instincts as she knows what she is doing. She goes after Caleb, one of the First evil’s henchmen who had kicked her ass a couple of times and with the assistance of the cameo appearance of Angel defeats him and gets the all powerful Slayer Scythe. With this Scythe Willow uses to tap into the Slayer line and gives all the potentials Buffy’s powers and makes them all Slayers. At the climax of the battle – Spike, Buffy’s full time lover uses his mystical amulet to destroy the Hellmouth prompting Buffy to finally tell him she loves him. After the destruction of Sunnydale, Buffy and the Scooby’s set out to find and train the remaining Slayers that have been awakened and thus ends our story.


Relationships:
Her main relationships have been:
Angel the vampire – season 1-3
Spike the vampire - season 6-7
Riley Finn the Initiative soldier – season 4-5


Some other short lived flings have been:
Billy “Ford” Fordham – season 2 used Buffy as bargaining chip to become a vampire
Owen Thurman – season 1 only wanted to date for the danger element
Tom Warner – season 2 jackass fraternity guy who wanted to sacrifice her to demon
Cameron Walker – season 2 swim team jock who only wanted to talk about the ocean and himself
Scott Hope - season 3 dated for couple of weeks but broke up because Angel came back into her life and she had to deal with the circumstances of that
Parker Abrams – season 4 only seduced her to get in her pants
RJ Brooks – season 7 used a mystical jacket to get laid

Buffy Summers will always be remembered for her uncanny whit and beauty as well as the passion she showed to her friends and family.
We are forever thankful for the entertainment and style she brought to our lives.

NCIS - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1

Heyow guys - I have decided to review my new ultimate favorite show NCIS. Starting with season one hopefully catching up before season eight starts. The first episode is "Yankee White" and it gives up one of the most under appreciated federal law enforcement agencies and all their comings and goings!



The episode starts off with Air Force One and President Bush - he boards the plane and we meet Caitlin "Kate" Todd who is working on his Secret Service detail. The football carrier Lt. Trapp dies on the plane - forcing the president to evacuate and the authorities to be called in and NCIS steals the body from the Secret Service and FBI by using the local coroner who is friends with Ducky - the NCIS coroner and so they steal the body and travel back to Washington.



Major Kerry is the second victim on the show - and he was the person who originally had to carry the football on Air Force One - but got sick and had to hand over the job. We learn he and Kate were having a romantic relationship - but she ended it as she could not concentrate on her detail of protecting the president and shortly after his meeting with Kate, Major Kerry dies the same mysterious way as Lt. Trapp.

Abby the NCIS forensic scientist finds traces of Australian Coastal Taipan Snake Venom (DMSO) on the collars of both victims - and the murders are referenced to be the work of a terrorist group. Just a small side note - Abby, wow! She is one hot goth!



The first and only movie reference Gibbs is known to make - turns out to be on the mark (Air Force One - with Harrison Ford)! The terrorist on Air Force One plans to take out the president as it was done on the movie - but Kate and Gibbs luckily foil his plans! Kate resigns from the Secret Service because of her affair and Gibbs recruits her to join NCIS.

The Tony Tale of the episode:
Once at Washington airport the FBI take the body in the body bag - but unknown to them Tony is in the bag pretending to be the body while Gibbs and Ducky get away with the real body! When Agent Fornell of the FBI finds out the body is actually Tony he gets thrown out of the van while in the bag - and bounces around on the beltway! Seriously funny!

There are four rules mentioned in this episode namely:
Rule#1 - Never let suspects stay together
Rule#2 - Always wear gloves at a crime scene
Rule#3 - Never believe what your told - always double check

Another rule is mentioned but not fully and not numbered: never apologize!

And finally a bit of trivia - the director of the Secret Service as seen on the MTAC screen talking to the Director of the FBI and Director Morrow of NCIS was the murderer Dr. Russell Pike in the season 4 episode "Driven"

HIMYM - SEASON 1 EPISODE 10

This episode is one of those laugh-a-minute episodes where the cast and story keep you glued from the beginning to the end. The 'Pineapple incident' must be one of the most popular episodes of the season and trivia fact the actress who played Trudy returned in a following episode when Ted and Barney fight it out for the championship belt!



This episode takes place mainly at the pub - as Ted is still whining about not being able to catch Robin. So Barney tells him to stop thinking about it and start drinking about it. Ted gets horribly drunk on shooters that Carl the bartender created called 'the red dragon' and so our night out with Ted begins. A wonderful backdrop story is Marshall's paranoia about Carl being a vampire - which I found so funny!

The episode deals mainly in each characters dealings with Ted while he is drunk in flashbacks of their memories as he cannot remember for himself what he had done. Major props have to go out to Ted for being "vomit free since '93"! As the story unfolds we find out Ted had made numerous phone calls to Robin while she was on a date with a 'hundred millionaire' - as she put it. Ted dances on the tables and sprains his ankle and wakes up with a strange woman who he had met in his drunken stupor, in his bed as well as a big ass pineapple on his side table!



Here we have another connected BARNEY-ISM and quote of the episode:
This takes place during Barney's recap of his time with Ted at the bar.
[FLASHBACK]
BARNEY: You're calling Robin?
TED: I'm calling Robin!
BARNEY: Ted, as your mental and spiritual guide, I forbid you from making that call!
TED: Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?
BARNEY: If you complete that call, I will set your coat on fire!
TED: You're bluffing!
{TED MAKES THE PHONE CALL - AND ROBIN @ HER DINNER ANSWERS HER PHONE}
TED: Hello Robin, it's Ted
ROBIN: Ted, for the last time, stop
{ROBIN HEARS TED SCREAMING THROUGH THE PHONE}
ROBIN: Ted?
[PRESENT]
{TED, BARNEY, LILY AND MARSHALL SITTING IN THE LIVING ROOM}
TED: You set me on fire!?
BARNEY: Real suede wouldn't have gone up so fast. You got robbed, this is a blend
TED: You set me on fire! And who is the girl in my bed?
{BARNEY LOOKS UP SURPRISED, STUMBLES OVER TO TED'S ROOM AND LOOKS IN - COMES BACK TO COUCH}
BARNEY: There's a girl in your room!
MARSHALL: And a pineapple! am I the only one who is curious about the pineapple?

No Marshall your not - but I guess that is going to remain one of those unanswered question of the series! Viva pineapple!